At least 50 people massacred in Congo village by machete and axe-wielding attackers

Killings happened near town of Beni where UN peacekeepers are stationed

Government officials blamed massacre on the ADF, a Ugandan rebel group

They said the group is responsible for more than 200 deaths near Beni since early October

More than 50 people have been massacred in a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo by machete and axe-wielding attackers.

The killings happened yesterday near the Ugandan border around 10km from the town of Beni, where the army and UN peacekeepers are stationed.

Government officials blamed the massacre on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist rebel group.

Beni (pictured) on the Ugandan border

Officials added that more than 200 people have been killed near Beni since early October by the ADF.

North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku told Reuters nine bodies had arrived at the morgue in the nearby town of Oicha but said the toll could rise.

He also blamed the Ugandan rebels and said: ‘They were savagely killed by the ADF.’

It was far from the main road. About 12 kilometres from Mavivi, I believe, in the bush.’

Amisi Kalonda, the regional administrator, told the BBC that searches were ongoing as the dead were spread out across the forest.

In Beni, UN peacekeeping mission spokesman Major Raphael Shonza said he could not confirm details of the attacks would send troops on Saturday to the site of the violence.

The ADF, a secretive organisation formed in the 1990s to fight the Ugandan government, has also been linked to a string of recent attacks in eastern Congo.

But some analysts have questioned this assessment.

The massacre comes after demonstrators — some armed with spears, machetes and arrows — recently barricaded roads in the troubled east of the country after a peacekeeper allegedly shot and killed a man in a dispute over motorbikes blocking the passage of a UN convoy.

After angry crowds descended on the town of Mbau, a protester was killed and two others badly wounded after clashes with the police.